'They see hope': Moving tribute to lost mom goes viral

Video: Ben Nunery wanted to keep the memories of his late wife alive with his young daughter, and decided to remake images with the child in the exact places where he posed with his wife years earlier. NBC’s Janet Shamlian reports.

The young Ohio widower simply wanted to make sure the memory of his wife would never fade for their daughter. He never expected his poignant, heart-wrenching tribute would touch so many people all over the world.

A series of images Ben Nunery originally posed for with his wife on their wedding were recently recreated with his 3-year-old daughter. The photos, and the story that recounted their journey, went viral after TODAY.com posted them on Dec. 16.

“They see hope in these photos, and that’s really what I want from this,” Nunery told TODAY. “We lose our loved ones, and they go away and it’s painful and it hurts, but the love doesn’t go away. It never goes away.”

In 2011, Nunery lost his 31-year-old schoolteacher wife to a rare form of lung cancer. The couple’s child, Olivia, was only a year old at the time.

In November, Nunery prepared to move out of the Cincinnati home he and his wife bought just before their wedding day. Before leaving, Ben wanted to honor the happy times the family shared in the house. So he asked his sister-in-law and Ali's sister, Melanie Pace, to take photos of him and Olivia in the exact places he posed with his wife years earlier.